Soccer Football - Serie A - Hellas Verona v Inter Milan - Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi, Verona, Italy - November 23, 2024 Inter Milan's Yann Aurel Bisseck scores their fifth goal past Hellas Verona's Lorenzo Montipo REUTERS/Alberto Lingria
VERONA, Italy (Reuters) - Inter Milan hammered lowly Hellas Verona 5-0 away from home on Saturday to provisionally move top of Serie A, with all five goals coming in the first half.
Forward Joaquin Correa opened the scoring after 17 minutes, before Marcus Thuram added a quick-fire double and Stefan de Vrij and Yann Bisseck also found the net.
"We managed to win a very important match," Inter coach Simone Inzaghi told DAZN.
Inter, who were held to a 1-1 home draw by Napoli before the international break, moved on to 28 points from 13 games, two points ahead of second-placed Napoli who host AS Roma on Sunday.
Verona started well with Flavius Daniliuc forcing Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer into a save inside five minutes with a header from a free kick and Casper Tengstedt hitting the bar.
That sparked Inter into life and Correa finished off a superb team move when he chipped Verona goalkeeper Lorenzo Montipo following a precise pass from Thuram who partnered Correa in the absence of Argentina striker Lautaro Martinez, who was rested having returned late from international duty.
Frenchman Thuram doubled the advantage in the 22nd minute after Correa teed him up with a low pass and the forward dribbled past Verona keeper to calmly find the net.
The 27-year-old then latched onto another long pass - this time from Alessandro Bastoni - to make it 3-0 with a low strike, moving him second among Serie A's top scorers this season with nine goals, two behind Atalanta striker Mateo Retegui.
De Vrij added a fourth with a powerful shot and Verona's leaky defence was exposed again when Bisseck completed the rout in the 41st minute, shooting into the roof of the net after falling to the ground.
Inter scored five goals in the first half of an away league game for only the second time in Serie A, after they thrashed Sampdoria 5-1 in 1964.
They next host RB Leipzig in the Champions League on Tuesday before travelling to Fiorentina.
Verona, who have now lost five of their last six league fixtures, are 14th on 12 points.
(Reporting by Anita Kobylinska in Gdansk, editing by Ed Osmond)
